There was not a single man left in Georgia who could hold a rifle in his hand except a number of college students. In 1921, Georgia lost its independence with the ‘help’ of Russians, and now Georgia was losing its gene-pool. Professor Simon Maskharashvili has more.

GJ – In the beginning years of 1941-1942 the Fascist Germany was forcefully attacking the Soviet Union. The Soviet troops were massively retreating from the front line. The situation was grave at the Caucasus front too. Leaving Georgia and the entire Caucasus by the Soviet Army was strongly on the agenda, which could have been a heavy loss for the USSR. The Soviet KGB urgently made a contingency plan: if the events developed against their will they were prepared to install their man at the helm of Georgia. SM – As I said before, they picked certain comrade Machavariani for the role. Their plan had it that he come to the Soviet Georgian government as a hero, a national leader who officially cooperated with Germans and the British. In reality he and the members of his government were supposed to work for the Soviet Union and would do their possible best to bring Russians back to Georgia. There came the year of 1943. Almost half a million ethnic Georgians were in action on the front line. There was not a single man left in Georgia who could hold a rifle in his hand except certain number of college students. In 1921, Georgia lost its independence with the ‘help’ of Russians, and now Georgia was losing its gene-pool. Doubtless, when you have your family member fighting somewhere on the frontline you are favoring the side your relative is fighting for. This was psychological factor which Stalin was using very dexterously in his own favor. If we want to call a spade a spade, the 700 thousand recruited ethnic Georgians were virtual hostages in the hands of Russia and the Stalinist regime. As soon as the War started Stalin took those Georgian men hostage in order for him to keep Georgia within the boundaries of the USSR. Stalin’s conduct made a pattern of a typical eastern ruler of old times like a Mongol khan or a Persian Shah who snatched hostages from the conquered nations and kept them in obedience that way. GJ – This makes it even clearer how important it was for Russia to keep Georgia within her power. SM – We have talked about the issue many times before. Nothing is changing up until now in the overall situation. Russia continues its fight for Georgia, having currently occupied 20 percent of its territory. So many Georgians were recruited only for the above mentioned purposes. Actually, there was no necessity or urgency to do that. Notwithstanding the German paratroopers deployed on the Apkhazeti (Abkhazia) and other highland territories, there had taken place no frontline battles in Georgia. Fascists had not bombed Georgia practically. Germans dropped a bombshell only twice on the Georgian soil. That’s all! And they had killed nobody. Thus according to any normal logic, so many Georgians should never have died in the War. The picture could have been totally different had the Germans invaded Georgia and threatened it with the possibility of genocide, but such a thing had never taken place. Just vice versa, a Georgian general Maglakelidze and other Georgian officers were fighting on the German side. The Georgian public figures and other Georgian emigrants residing in Germany were supporting Germans. Hence there was no reason for Germany to arrange anything like genocide in Georgia (Continued in the next article on the same page).